Rising star Heena Sidhu becomes first Indian to make the cover of ISSF

Heena Sidhu wins pistol gold in World Cup shooting

International Shooting Sports Federation (ISSF), which is an internationally recognized magazine for Shooting, handed Heena Sidhu an appearance on it’s cover of the December issue, making her the first Indian to have ever achieved this feat.

The ISSF NEWS edition’s description wrote, “Young and upcoming athletes like her are the future of SHOOTING, and their motivation is the power that will move our sport towards Rio 2016.”

Four images appear in the magazine, three showing her clad in purple and one from the medals ceremony.

The Ludhiana-born shooter rose to prominence in Munich at the ISSF World Cup final last November, scoring 203.8 for the world record and gold in 10m air pistol final.

The 22-year old is ranked on ISSF world rankings in women’s 10m air pistol (1263 rating), behind Serbia’s Zorana Arunovic (1598 as per Jan 2014 list).

Her reaction to her latest feat was rather subdued.

She said, “My selection for the cover by ISSF is okay. I am told it is a first time for an Indian international. I am more happy with the world record in Munich under the 20-shot final round format.”

She was, however, proud that her competitors are starting to take notice of her.

“We may live far apart, but the shooting community is connected via ISSF magazine. It felt nice to get congratulatory messages from Olena and her father,” said Heena about her Ukraine rival, a double Olympics medalist with Athens 2004 gold and London 2012 bronze.

The World number 2 is firmly focused on performing consistently, and winning as many medals as she can.

She concluded, “I want to win many more competitions. I want to make up for all the years without a medal. Recognition is motivating, performance that day matters.”